Strelnikov powers Lake Zurich over Jacobs
Lake Zurich thoroughly discussed the pitfalls that can arise while playing holiday tournament basketball, out of the regular routine and, especially, when playing a host team on its own floor.
It was a message the Bears received loud and clear.
From the outset, they jumped all over Jacobs, jamming the ball inside to 6-foot-8 junior Anton Strelnikov, and leading all the way for a 57-44 victory in the second round of Jacobs’ Hinkle Holiday Classic Tuesday at the Eagles’ Nest.
“We knew they were going to be really energetic,” Bears coach Terry Coughlin said. “We were going to have to exceed their energy to stay in the game and we came out and really executed our game plan. We guarded their stuff really well. We were physical.
“Our kids were locked into the scouting report and locked in physically. When you combine all those things to play well, we did that and responded to the challenge.”
Lake Zurich (11-3) shot 55.6% (25 of 45) from the field and handed the Golden Eagles (6-8) their first home loss of the season. Strelnikov hit 10 of 12 shots and scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the first half.
“It’s always hard when they’re hosting. They haven’t lost at home yet, we just came out and talked a lot and had great energy,” Strelnikov said. “When something went wrong we talked about it.
“We knew going in they were relatively small, so our game plan was to handle me 1-on-1, try to get a bucket and if they double, try to pass it to my team and just get a dub.”
The No. 2-seeded Bears will face No. 3 Crystal Lake South (13-1) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in a semifinal game.
“They just do a good job. (Strelnikov) is skilled and they were doing a good job of really working offensively to get him catches and make a concerted effort,” Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said. “They play through him. They get him catches up high. They do a good job playing through him. We didn’t do the greatest job of limiting his catches, we could have done better.
“But that’s what’s difficult with tournament basketball. There’s no practice time and you have to have conversations and come up with a plan and try to execute it. They did a much better job than we did.”
The Bears’ man-to-man defense got after Jacobs hard at the start, keeping the Eagles from their first basket until 4:00 was left in the first quarter.
Jacobs’ Treval Howard works under the hoop against Lake Zurich in Hinkle Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament game action at Jacobs High School Tuesday. (Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local/Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local)
“Our main focus was getting stops. We got a lot of stops in the beginning and that really helped us,” Bears guard Ryan Carroll said. “We just had good pressure on them.”
Carroll and Connor Strauss each scored 12 for the Bears. Treval Howard led Jacobs wtih 15 points.
The Eagles play Barrington at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the consolation side of the championship bracket.
It was the second time Roberts, a 1996 Lake Zurich graduate, has coached against his alma mater. The first time was when he was head coach at Round Lake.
“They’re just tough. They play in a really good league (North Suburban Conference). They play a really good schedule,” Roberts said. “They’ve competed with some really good teams. When you play teams like that, shots are tougher, windows are smaller.
“We didn’t hit some shots early, Ben (Jurzak) had an open 3, Trev (Howard) had a couple open looks, they made them, we didn’t. They’re tough, they’re physical. We have to be really good with what we do offensively.”